Nvidia CEO urges German manufacturers to adopt AI, saying digital tech
won't replace heavy industry
[October 20, 2026] By
DAVID McHUGH
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang urged Germany's makers
of cars and industrial machines to quickly adopt artificial intelligence
to “re-engineer” the country's struggling business model by tapping its
wealth of manufacturing data and expertise.
Huang, whose company designs the powerful computer chips and software
used by companies like Anthropic and OpenAI to develop AI applications,
said that digital technology would never replace manufacturing and the
engineering world of cars and robots where Germany has vast experience.
Or, as he put it, “electrons will never replace atoms.” But he said
industry would benefit by leaning into technology.
“The next wave of AI is physical. This is where AI interacts with the
physical world: robotics, manufacturing, cars, heavy industry,” Huang
said Monday during a discussion with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at
an investment conference in Berlin.
"And so AI can only augment your capability. It will not replace your
capability. So take advantage of the technology."
Huang said Germany's data and expertise on manufacturing “is your
natural resource, it belongs to the nation" but it needs to take better
advantage of AI. "This industrial revolution is so mighty, so powerful.
You don't have another chance,” he said.
European leaders like Merz are looking to AI as a potential source of
growth but are also concerned about the extent of European dependence on
U.S. tech companies in the field. Europe's wealth of high quality
public-sector and machine-readable manufacturing data could serve as
grist for AI, an opportunity cited by former European Central Bank head
Mario Draghi as an area where Europe could compete with the U.S. and
China in the AI field.
Huang and Merz said AI was an opportunity for Germany's so-called “mittelstand,”
the hundreds of small- and medium-sized companies in highly specialized
industrial sectors.
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German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, left, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang,
attend the opening ceremony of the "Invest in Germany Summit" in
Berlin, Monday, Oct. 19, 2026. (Fabian Sommer/dpa via AP)
 Merz is struggling to revive growth
in Germany after years of near-stagnation after the pandemic. Among
the economy's headwinds are high energy prices after losing cheap
Russian natural gas due to the invasion of Ukraine, competition from
China in sectors like autos where Germany once dominated, and
excessive red tape and permissions that hold up projects for years.
All that has put a damper on an economy heavily oriented toward
building complicated machines for export, including cars, trains,
aircraft and factory equipment.
Europe lags the U.S. in building out the data centers that offer the
massive computing capacity to train artificial intelligence
applications, and faces concerns over the security of European
companies' sensitive data against subpoenas and criminal warrants on
servers owned by U.S. companies and thus exposed to the U.S. legal
system even if they're in Europe.
Huang appeared to address such concerns by urging Germany to import
AI technology but adding that “you should not export your culture,
export your values, export your knowledge."
Huang said Germany should “take advantage of artificial
intelligence. Let them codify, let them program, let them teach this
artificial intelligence and keep it here in Germany, and let's
re-engineer, the chancellor's words, Germany. This is your chance to
do it.”
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